In the world of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles, the Chevrolet Volt has been the most high-profile entry aimed at consumers. However, the biggest problem for GM when it comes to the current Volt is that the vehicle isn't profitable.

"This car, on a technology scale, is off the charts vs. what you [have] seen," said GM CEO Dan Akerson, who owns one personally. "We've sold about 26,500 of them [and] we're losing money on every one."

Akerson says that the loss GM takes on every Volt that it sales will soon come to an end. The automaker has significant improvement planned for the second-generation vehicle, including making it lighter. Less weight means that the electric driving range can be made extended without adding larger battery packs -- the battery pack on the current generation Volt battery weighs 400 pounds alone.

According to Akerson, GM believes that the cost to build the Volt can be reduced in the range of $7,000 to $10,000 on the second-generation model. That doesn't necessarily mean buyers will see a discount, but it will mean GM doesn't take a loss on each vehicle it sells.

If GM actually wants to start selling more cars to intelligent people who aren't geriatric they need to stop with the doors that automatically lock when you put the car in drive and other features that take control away from the driver. As it is now, I will never buy a GM car because driving one feels like wearing a coat with mittens attached to the sleeves.

In some Ford's, turn the key three times on/off leaving in the on position and you will hear a ding ding ding, press the brake pedal twice then turn the key to off position. To change back to locking doors, do the same sequence but press the brakes once.

In other Fords its as simple as holding both the remote keyfob lock/unlock buttons for 5 seconds while the vehicle is in motion. The doors will unlock then relock indicating they will lock upon driving greater than 12mph. Do the sequence again and the doors will unlock, lock, then unlock to disable the motion auto-lock feature...

There's a very good reason that cars now have this feature. It is for safety. Specifically, doors are waaay less prone to open (by a strength factor of almost 4to1) in a crash/impact when the door latch is in the "secondary" latching position. And when the door latch is "locked" it helps to keep the latch in the "secondary" latched position. Furthermore, most passive restraint seat belt systems, as well as air bag systems, "monitor" via sensor the position of the door latch's "fork bolt" (this is the part of the latch that engages the car body's striker bolt, keeping it shut). In some cases, if the latch is not fully latched (ie. in the secondary position) and locked, the belts and/or the bags may not work properly, or at all.

I was one of the product design engineers for the "mini wedge" and the follow-up "global" door latches for GM. These latches are also found on many other vehicles from Toyota, Subaru, Isuzu, etc.

What on earth are you complaining about?!? What use would opening the doors while th car is in drive have other than if pure trying to bailout of the car like in a movie?And what new car these days doesn't automatically lock it's doors seconds after you put it in drive? None. They all have the feature.

I think every car other than my 85' corolla have all done it. I know all 4 cars I have leased since 2007 have all had this feature. I have also never been in a situation where this feature got in the way.

This "gets in the way" on our van because we're always unloading kids and we have to manually unlock it. That's not a bad thing, though, since it means the kids can't just bolt from the van once we stop.

The car I drive to work auto-locks and also auto-UNLOCKS when I turn off the engine - pretty handy. It would be handiest if every vehicle let the owner set it to work as he or she saw fit for his or her own situation, IMO.

My cars do the same, I think I could set whether to auto-unlock the car once turned off on one of my cars not sure if it was my 3 series or my Edge. It was also my BMW that would lock itself after a certain amount of time if you forgot to lock the car now that was good and bad I am sure it locked itself many times after I forgot but there were several times where I intended to return to the car so I left the keys in it but not in the ignition and it locked itself.I agree we should have the option to set it how we see fit except for when we shift into drive it should definitely lock the doors at that point there is no reason not to enable that feature except if you think you might be kidnapped in your own car and would like the option to jump out while it's moving lolI have also read that some auto companies have entertained the idea of not allowing a car to shift into anything other than park and neutral if any of the doors are still open.

There's a lot of things to complain about GM for (and every other car manufacturer, for that matter), but if auto locking doors is your issue, that's about the most ridiculous statements I've ever seen.

On my Solstice, I have to unlock the doors if the engine is running, if the engine is not running, they unlock themselves. My wife's car has to unlock them whether engine is running or not (second pull like your car or press the main lock/unlock on the dash).

Most cars enable you to turn off the auto lock feature. I know my old 1995 Ford Explorer had the option and my 2004 A4 also has the option.Reading your manual or engaging on a car forum will enlighten you to options car manufactures provide.

"So, I think the same thing of the music industry. They can't say that they're losing money, you know what I'm saying. They just probably don't have the same surplus that they had." -- Wu-Tang Clan founder RZA